to the emperor by later writers. nero an eccentric ruler who wanted to be an artist and preferred to live in a world of fantasy. but neither an arsonist nor persecutor of christians. was. it s july nineteenth in the years sixty four it hasn t rained for days. rome is
days thousands will die when the smoke clears three quarters of the city will lay in ruins. according to legend the apostle peter was in rome at the same time to supervise the city s fledgling christian community. later he would go down in the annals of the catholic church is the first bishop of rome. with. another natori as legend emperor nero himself started the fire as an excuse to rebuild rome to his own liking and to rename the city mirabilis and that s not all. the mad megalomaniac watched the conflagration from his palace on the palatine you know merrily singing and playing his life. in need of a scapegoat he blamed the fire on the christians so many indiscriminately and
mercilessly crucified. because of peter w
City s design and proved to be a visionary and pragmatic planner with his advisors he set out to read rome of its narrow streets and congested spaces unbearably confined in the hot summer months. instead he ordered wide avenues in colonnades to provide shade a mammoth project that nero helped finance from his own coffers tacitus praised nero s actions as wise and prudent. at last i m going to be able to be housed like a human being that is house to tony is quote here on the completion of his new palace the domus aria or golden house. it s wall and ceiling frescoes were rediscovered at the height of the renaissance painters were abseiled down into the subterranean labyrinth of the palace to copy the works of their predecessors fermenter gritty. rome was no stranger to
Ravaged city nero set fire to rome to build a new city but he will remain after himself. and the biggest nero cliche of them all while a city was burning nero mounted his private stage and comparing modern disasters with ancient had some of the destruction of troy. was with. in the story appears to corroborate accounts of his expressive facilities as an artist and the way he presented himself at other times it s one of the many scenes that one is tempted to regard as an exaggeration of the literary sources but i m not so sure. you can see. what tacitus noted as a rumor was recorded as a fun to tony s nero started the fire. and a century after so tony use consumers do you know road neurosurgery is hard done
The arsonists arrest was branded religious persecution at the end of the second century by the christian theologian ted too early on. in the fifth century christian monks produced copies of ancient texts and may well have intentionally falsified their accounts in the process. it s likely that tacitus is original works delivered a far less damning indictment of nero than the versions we know today. see how. if they created the impression we have today that ever since the dawn of christianity there were violent waves of persecution in which christians was systematically and indiscriminately lined up for execution if that is true of russia s persecution of christians in the twentieth century that the current situation in the middle east but not in antiquity but that s just me and. on a late summer day in the year sixty four crowns head towards the palatine hill.
Be totally destroyed only ruins will remain in another set of. wooden houses dry as a tinderbox narrow passage ways the heat so intense not a trace is left of tens of thousands of residents. rome s water delivery system fails to provide enough water to battle the flames new fires break out the blaze rages on for days. now now i. am back in the city narrows supervises the firefighting operation he sets up a disaster fund and quickly begins reconstruction efforts introducing rome s first building codes and incentives for private rebuilding. tacitus praises the reconstruction efforts but he also. reports the suspicion that arises after a second fire breaks out on the estate of nero s police chief to goodness the writing on the wall now reads nero arsonist. rumors begin to circulate in the